Flexible-shank tack-button.



F. L STANLEi.

FLEXiBLE SHAT'ri TACK BUTTON. APPLICATXON HLED sun 2a 191?.

Patented Jan. 28, 1919.

JZZZ/Z/WWWM button. Fig. 3 shows in FREDERICK E. STANLEY,

OF WATEBIBURY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOB TO SCOVILL MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

FLEXIBLE-SHANE! TACK-BUTTON.

i Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 28, 1919.

Application filed July 26, 1817. Serial No. 182,971.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK E. Saari- LEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Waterbury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have inventede certain new and useful Improvement in Flexible-Shank Tack-Buttons, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to that class of buttons which are fastened to or set on goods by means of tacks, and commonly known as tack fastened buttons.

The object of the invention is to provide a flexible button of this class; that is to say, one in which the button head is movable longitudinally and laterally with relation to its shank and capable of rotation thereon.

The invention consists of a tack fastened button in which the connection between the head and shank is flexible, the shank of which comprises a hollow anvil and an eyelet-like spacer or foot which are rigidly united and adapted to receive and clench the fastening tack so as to set the button, the button head being applied to the shank before the anvil is clenched in the spacer or foot and in such manner that the button head may have longitudinal movement on the shank and also a lateral or tilting movement thereon and be capable of rotating about it as an axis, as I will proceed now to explain and finally claim.

In the accompanying drawin ing the invention, in the severe figures of w iich like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 shows in lan view and side elevation the spacer or cot, and Fig. 2 shows in to plan view, side elevation and bottom plan view the anvil which when united with the spacer or foot forms the shank of the lan. view and side elevation the back or co let of the button. Fig. 4 shows in plan view and side elevation the cap. Fig. 5 shows in transverse section and bottom plan view the assembled button. Fig. 6 shows on a larger scale the assembled button set on ieces of fabricand with the button head rawn up to the farthest extent of its upward movement, the dotted lines illustrating one way in which the button head is capable of being tilted on its shank.

In the preferred construction and the one here selected for illustrating the invention.

illustratthe back or collet 1 of the button may be of any approved shape and material, usually of metal, and rovided with a central opening 2. The cap 3 likewise may be of usual or approved construction and ada ted to be closed down over the edge of the ck as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The hole 2 in the back. is to receive the shank of the button, by means of which the button is ca able of being attached to a garment or otlier object. The shank in the present invention comprises a steel or other relatively hard metal hollow device 4, comprising a closed flat top portion 5, and the tubular portion 6 of such construction as to ermit it to be ex panded within an eyelet-like spacer or foot 7 having the tubular portion or barrel 8 and the outwardly flared or concave base 9. The top portion 5 receives the point of the tack 10 in the setting operation and upsets it, as indicated in Fig. 6, and for this reason this portion 5 is herein referred to as an anvil. The to portion 5 of the anvil flares out from the tu u ar portion 6, and the tubular portion or ,barrel of the spacer or foot 7 preferably is reduced in thickness to a minimum consistent with strength and is forced up against the base of the flaring top so as to be substantially flush therewith and to avoid the resentation of any appreciable shoulder or o stacle to the free movement of the but ton head on its shank.

In assembling the parts, the back or collet Land the anvll 4 are engaged by passing the tubular portion of the anvil through the hole 2 so as to project beyond the same and while the flared portion or top is within the back. Then the tubular portion of the anvil isinserted in the spacer or foot' 7 and the two drawn together so that there can be no possible relative movement, and then the tubular portion of the anvil is spread or expanded, as indicated in Figs. 5 and 6, so as to render the union of the two permanent and immovable, and then the cap 3 is ap-* plied to the back, and the button is then ready to receive any desired finish and to be applied-to a arment or other goods.

As shown 1n the sectional view, Fig. 5, the button head avitates upon its shank,

but when strain is placed upon the button head it may move outwardly to the limit of its shank, as indicated in Fig. 6, and not only so, .but 1n either position the button head is capable of lateral movement on the any: 3

. collet shank, for example, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 6, and moreover it may always be turned around the shank as upon an axis.

It will be observed that in my invention the two-part shank composed of the hollow anvil havin the flaring to and the s acer or foot having the flared ase, provi e by means of the top and base the only limitations of movement of the button head thereon, and thus a relatively wide range of longitudinal movement as well as of lateral movement of the button on its shank is secured, and by means of a very simple construction.

The invention is susceptible of variations in structural details, so lon as the intimate union and substantially un roken profile of the shank are preserved.

"hat I claim is.

1. A flexible shank tack fastened button, havin a button provided with a back or having a central opening", and a shank composed of an anvil having a flared top portion located within the button head and a tubular portion extending outside the same through the central opening in the back or collet, and a s acer or foot applied externally to the anvil and havin a flared base, the anvil and spacer or foot oing rigidly connected, the external profile of the thus completed shank being substantially uniform and unbroken between the flared top of the anvil and the flared base of the spacer or foot, whereby the button head is movable lon 'tudinally, laterally and rotarily with re ation to the shank, said lon tudinal motion being limited in opposite rections by contact of the button head with the flared top portion of the shank and the base of said shank respectively.

2. A flexible shank tack fastened button having a button head, the back or collet oi which is perforated, and a shank composed of an anvil havin a'flared top portion located within the utton head and limiting the outward movement of the head towar such top and a tubular expansible portion extending outside the same, and'a spacer or foot having a tubular portion and a flared base and applied externally to the anvil, the tubular portion of the anvil bein expanded within t e spacer or foot to rigi 1y connect the two, the tubular portion of the spacer or foot extending up to the flared portion of the anvil and aflording substantially an unbroken and uniform external surface on which the button head may move longitudinally and laterally between the said flared portion of the anvil and the flared base of the spacer or foot and rotatively upon said shank as an axis.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 24th day of July, A. D. 1917.

FREDERICK E. STANLEY.

Witnesses:

Pnaor WARNER, E. A. HYDE.

It is hereby certified that in Letters Patent No. 1,292,913, granted January 28, 1919, upon the application of Frederick E. Stanley, of Waterbury, Connecticut,

for an improvement in "FlexibleShnnk Tack-Buttons," an error appears in the printed specification requiring correction as follows: Page 2, line 21, claim 1, after the word button" insert the word head; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the some may conform to the record of.

the case in the Patent Oflice.

Signed and sealed this 25th day of February, A. D., 1919.

F. W. H. CLAY,

Acting Commissioner of Patents.

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